A Delicious Mistake

Today was such a fun day! I didn’t think I had any plans, but after we left some stuff behind where we babysat last night (HI NINA!), I found myself in my old neighborhood in the North suburbs of Chicago. I called my mom to see what she was up to today, and it turns out she was meeting my sister for brunch, so I got to have brunch with my mom and sister! I walked into The Bagel and who should I see but Fancy, our favorite blog commenter (who should have a food blog, even though she doesn’t thinks she should). It was so good to see her since we were like family in college and I hadn’t seen her in YEARS! Then, my sister and I got to go shopping for her (which we never get to do), and then Adam and I went to the grocery store.

WHEW! What an eventful day! While at brunch, my mom gave me a recipe for turkey burgers that I just had to try, and then later emailed the full recipe. She was right. I had to try them! When we went to the grocery store, we bought the ingredients. We got home, and I started cooking. I put what I thought all the ingredients were in my mixing bowl, and formed patties, and started cooking the turkey burgers. They did not look right. I went to flip them, and they were way too soft. Then I realized: I forgot the bread crumbs! SO when you make these burgers (and you absolutely have to IF you eat turkey!), make sure you put the bread crumbs in! We ate our “burgers” patty melt style on toasted bread with spicy (fat free) mayo.

I messed up, but still so delicious!

Grilled Turkey Burgers with Sweet Pickles

(From Sara Foster, House and Garden)
Serves 4
1 1/2 pounds ground turkey
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon hot sauce, such as Texas Pete or Tabasco
2 scallions, minced (white and green parts)
4 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon sea salt, plus extra to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra to taste
4 whole wheat hamburger buns, lightly toasted
Sweet pickle slices
1 tomato, cored and sliced

Prepare a hot fire in a charcoal or gas grill. (Or just before you’re ready to cook the burgers, heat a grill pan or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until hot.) Combine the turkey, bread crumbs, mayonnaise, chives, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, scallions, basil, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and work the mixture with your hands just to mix. (Do not overmix or the burgers will be tough.) Form the meat mixture into four 1-inch-thick patties. Season both sides of the patties with salt and pepper and grill them for 5 to 6 minutes per side, or until they’re just done. Remove the patties to a platter, cover them loosely with foil to keep warm, and set them aside to rest for about 5 minutes. To assemble the burgers, lay a few pickle slices and one tomato slice on the bottom of each bun and place the burgers on top. Serve with mustard and mayonnaise on the side.

For my WW friends, these are 5 Points® a piece, 6 with bread.

I did not use tomato or sweet pickles on the burgers, mostly because I couldn’t find good tomatoes and i hate sweet pickles. The flavor in these was downright incredible. They don’t scream “GREEN ONIONS” or “BASIL” but rather have very subtle flavors. I might actually make these, correctly, again this week! I made a sriracha mayo to put on top (1 tsp. sriracha and fat free mayo), but they really didn’t need it.

Not just sweet potatoes, garnet yams!

We went to a local international produce market for groceries today, and much to my delight, they had garnet yams! They have such an incredible flavor, and are so much easier to cut than regular sweet potatoes. I dusted the sweet potato slices with cumin and baked them at 425 for about a half hour, until the smoke alarm told me that the thinner slices were burning!

You’ll get to meet a member of our extended family this week! My mom and stepdad are going out of town for a few days and we’re watching their dog, Stella. She’s a goldendoodle and absolutely adorable! Luckily, she and Raven get along well!

Since it’s Sunday, I’m off to watch Flight of the Conchords and work on a bit of a surprise for my 100th post on Wednesday!

Have a great night and I’ll “see” you tomorrow!

Tagged as: family, friends, sandwich, turkey